Building an Automated Trading System
I wish to acknowledge that we gather and study on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nations.
I am thankful for the privilege to learn, work, and grow on this land.
In early 2024, I watched my stock drop 15% in one day.
I panicked. I sold everything.
Next week? It bounced back 20%.
Why do we do this? Because we’re human:
Most individual investors underperform a simple index fund.
Paper Trader AI - Three strategies competing head-to-head:
All trading S&P 500 stocks with fake money, real prices.
Think of it as a flight simulator for investing.
| Strategy | Return |
|---|---|
| Momentum | +18.0% |
| XGBoost (ML) | +6.8% |
| LSTM | +7.7% |
| SPY Benchmark | +3.4% |
The Hidden Lesson: XGBoost made 576 trades vs Momentum’s 50 trades.
More trades = more fees = lower returns. Less is More.
The Bottom Line
Now when my portfolio drops, I remind myself:
The robot wouldn’t care. Maybe I shouldn’t either.
🔗 Live Dashboard: paper-trader-ai.streamlit.app
📂 GitHub: github.com/PAT0216/paper-trader